•P 5 



AMERICA'S DUTY IN 

RELATION TO THE 

EUROPEAN WAR 



ADDRESS BY 

Dr. CHARLES W. ELIOT 



BEFORE THE 

BUSINESS WOMEN'S CLUB 

OCTOBER 15, 1914 



ISSUED BY THE CLUB, FROM ITS CLUBHOUSE 
144 BOWDOIN ST., BOSTON, MASS. 

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By trwrisfft^ 
The Wx-^-^e Housa 

NOV 5 19H 



AMERICA'S DUTY IN REGARD TO 
THE EUROPEAN WAR 

Duties often grow out of sentiments and beliefs, and in this in- 
stance they clearly do; so that I propose in the first place to 
speak of the great disappointments which this War and the second 
War in the Balkans have brought to thoughtful Americans and to 
all persons, indeed, who hoped that the human race was maldng 
some progress towards humane, just, and merciful conditions of 
life. 

We have been startled by the outbreak, the apparently sudden 
outbreak, of the worst fighting that the world has ever seen in 
regard to destruction of hfe and property, and of precious treasures 
of letters and art. That is the hteral fact. No war of former 
times has been so destructive of things that we imagined the human 
race in its civilized parts held to be precious and inviolable. 

Then, most Americans believed that one of the chief methods of 
progress in civilization was expressed in the phrase, "the sanctity 
of contracts." You are all business women. You have known 
that modern business absolutely depends on the sanctity of con- 
tracts. It depends also upon the faith of man in man. AH the 
commercial and financial agencies of the modern world are built on 
credit; and what is credit but the faith of man in man that all will 
observe the sanctity of a contract or agreement? 

Lately, we saw in the Balkans that a bond of union under which 
a considerable war had been fought against an alien ruler suddenly 
broke to pieces; and on the rupture came one of the most ferocious 
wars that the world has ever seen, a war as savage as that of the 
Greek revolution of 1822, which at the time was supposed to be 
characterized by imusual ferocity. And then we were brought to 
this sudden outburst of war-like fury in Europe; and one of the niost 
civilized nations in Europe immediately declared by its acts — not 
in words, though a declaration in words was not altogether lacking 
— that a solemn treaty, only a few years old, was to signify for that 

[3] 



nation nothing whatever, absolutely nothing. The treaty of neu- 
trality which protected Belgium was violated in the first moments 
of the War. These things have brought to Americans a desperate 
disappointment. 

The whole structure of our government rests on a single contract 
entered into by thirteen parties, the Constitution of the United 
States. We are thoroughly accustomed to the principle of federa- 
tion, the joining together of distinct independent states in a com- 
mon union for common purposes; and we regard that union, that 
federation, as the very foundation of our national life. Are such 
contracts, such conventions, such agreements, to be regarded in 
Europe as of no effect, as "pieces of paper," as the German 
Chancellor said, to be torn up because of what he called miUtary 
necessity, which only meant that a nation going to war may take 
the easiest, shortest, quickest way of attacking its opponent, no 
matter what neutral territory may stand in the way? This total 
disregard of the sanctity of a contract is the heaviest of our many 
serious disappointments within the last two months and a half. 

And then we Americans had fondly hoped that the conception 
of chivalry was to be preserved in the modern world, that the 
chivalrous man was still to exist, that a chivalrous knighthood 
might continue to exist, that the chivalrous principle of the strong 
defending and protecting the weak would develop, not dwindle, in 
the civilized world. Americans illustrate this state of mind, this 
chivalrous habit, in their treatment of women and children; and 
they have done so for many generations. Suddenly we find a 
strong nation which claims the highest degree of civilization ab- 
solutely disregarding all considerations of chivalrous action towards 
weaker powers. The attack by Germany on Belgium was a 
violent attack of a sudden on an army and a nation that was in- 
definitely weaker than Germany, — no comparison whatever be- 
tween little Belgium and great Germany in any sort of power or 
force; and today Belgium has been devoured, is extinct, if Europe 
shall permit her to be extinguished. 

We had hoped that the methods of war and the ethics of war 
had been shown to be capable of amelioration, of improvement. 
Both Conferences of the Hague labored much over ameliorations 
of the practices in war. This present War has blown all those 
efforts to the winds. 

[4] 



Americans, as a rule, have believed that the human race was 
really making a slow progress towards justice between man and 
man, and between nation and nation, and was making a slow 
progress toward the development of individual liberty. We said 
in our Declaration of Independence that all men are entitled to 
"life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness;" and now we see that 
there is not a man or woman in Europe that has any title to life, or 
liberty, or the pursuit of happiness. This is another heavy dis- 
appointment to the American people. 

We had hoped that the world was making some progress 
toward the Christian ideal of mercy, gentleness, and love as the 
supreme motives in human conduct; and suddenly we discover that 
in the most advanced nation in Europe as regards science, pure 
and applied, there is during war no mercy, no humanity, and that 
hatred quickly takes the place of friendliness, and is developed 
with an astonishing speed and amplitude into a fierce and abiding 
passion. 

These disappointments weigh upon us the more because we 
see no issue possible of the present struggle except after long 
months or years of desperate warfare. The prevailing German 
philosophy of government and of national greatness is built upon 
the dogma — "Might makes Right." It seems to be a new religion 
among the leading Prussians that force is the only basis of national 
greatness and of moral dignity, and valor the highest virtue, no 
matter in what cause valor is displayed. 

You are all women. Do you believe that might makes right? 
Have you ever believed it? Has the history of the human race, 
up from savagery to what we call civilization, suggested to you 
that might is the real source of right, is the only foundation of 
just relations between man and woman? In savage Hfe the 
greater strength, power, and endurance of the man gives him ab- 
solute control over the woman; and he has always exercised it. 
Here in this most fortunate and blessed country we have had a 
totally different conception of right relations between man and 
woman, between adults and children, between the State and its 
citizens. We absolutely deny that might makes right. We be- 
lieve that the foundations of the family and of the State are moral, 
and that these moral foundations have superseded in some measure 
the ancient tenet that the strong have the right to dominate the 
weak. [ 5 ] 



You perceive that the American objection to the political 
philosophy of Germany at the present day, and to its militarism, 
is absolutely fundamental. Our objections go to the roots of 
the matter, and we are irreconcilable to the whole philosophy 
which prevails in Germany, apparently without denial or exception 
in any class of society. I say "apparently," because none of 
us feel that at present we have access to the fundamental senti- 
ments of the mass of the German population. We have access to 
the expressed views of the philosophers, poets, and historians. 
We, of course, have access to the expressed views of their military 
authorities, active or retired. We have access to the archaic 
conceptions which the German Emperor cherishes of his function, 
and of the God-given powers of himself and his family. But we 
have not access at this moment to the underlying sentiments of 
the masses of the German people; and it will probably be years 
before we learn them. So, thinking of these things, we have to 
quahfy our use of the word "prevail" with the word "apparently," 
or the phrase "so far as we can see;" and we are permitted to 
hope that we do not see far enough. 

Such being the gulf between American sentiments and German 
sentiments as they appear today, and this gulf being a matter of 
poHtical and religious conviction, how are our duties as a nation 
to be determined in the present crisis and catastrophe for man- 
kind? 

We have no difficulty in recognizing the justice, indeed the in- 
dispensable quality of the action of our government, the official 
action of the nation, in the present horrible conditions. We all 
believe that our government has been right in declaring neutrality 
in the actual combat for the United States. We all believe that 
at present we must deal equally with the combatants on the two 
sides — that if we sell food to one group we must also sell food to 
the other; that we must pay our debts, no matter to which side. 
So much we are doing. We are paying our debts, no matter 
whether the debt is due to a German, an Austrian, a Frenchman, 
or an Enghshman. We also keep open the lines of traffic, whether 
those lines run into EngKsh or French ports, or into any other port 
of Europe not blockaded. Our surplus food is going to all the com- 
batants at this moment; because neutral ports give access to Ger- 
many and Austria as well as to England, France, and Russia. 

[61 



But this neutrality is official or legal, as it were. It must be 
maintained until new conditions determine new actions. But 
it is, of course, quite impossible for us to be neutral as regards our 
feelings and beliefs, our sentiments and hopes; quite impossible, 
because the cause in which Germany and Austria-Hungary are 
fighting is the cause of imperialism, of miHtarism, of govern- 
ments by force, using against other nations the extreme of skilfully- 
directed, highly-trained force. We see upon the other side the 
two freest large nations in Europe combined with a military 
empire. These two freest nations — England and France — are 
nations to which we of this country are deeply indebted for our 
own safety, freedom, and faith in liberty under law. Therefore, 
neutrality in our hearts is quite out of the question. 

But under these conditions what can we do, what can you do 
to help agonized Europe? You can do everything in your power, 
and advise all persons over whom you have influence to do every- 
thing in their power, to keep our own industries going, to main- 
tain the business, the work, the productiveness of this country; to 
restore the lines of exchange suddenly ruptured after a careful 
building up which has taken at least three centuries; and to re- 
store the lines of transportation for the international exchange of 
goods. You can do everything in your power to prevent all kinds 
of hoarding within our country, within our domestic circles, hoard- 
ing of money, goods, or provisions — flour, for example, and sugar — 
and of purchasing beyond the usual demands of the family. All 
these things hurt. They hurt because they tend to an unreason- 
able rise of prices immediately, and on the spot. Discourage all 
such selfish precautions. 

Every man who employs other persons should now continue to 
employ as many as possible of the people he has been accustomed 
to employ. To reduce unnecessarily expenditures on the employ- 
ment of labor is an unwise and unpatriotic thing at this moment. 

Are there no expenditures that we may properly reduce? Cer- 
tainly there are. But at tliis moment I think of only one class of 
expenditures which might well be reduced, namely, expenditures 
on luxuries, particularly on luxuries which are, to say the least, 
silly or injurious. There are a good many such luxuries in the 
American community on which serious savings might be made; but 
those are the only expenditures which it is even justifiable to reduce 

[7] 



at this time, unless the money to meet normal expenditures is 
actually lacking. No fear of future loss of income justifies re- 
trenchment now. 

I have been speaking of our own expenditures and the employ- 
ment of labor in our own country; but can we not do something for 
other countries in similar directions? We can continue to supply 
to the utmost the industries of all other countries, and particu- 
larly the industries of the European countries, with the raw 
materials they need for their own factories. We shall be truly 
neutral in so doing, if the conditions permit us to supply the 
raw materials of their industries, or parts of them, to all the com- 
batants. We may not be able to serve all the nations that are at 
war; but should do it so far as it is possible. This is one of the 
neutral duties. 

The prospect is that the War will last until one or other of the 
combatants is thoroughly exhausted. One cannot conceive of 
Germany submitting to defeat until she has exhausted her sup- 
plies of men, money, and food. And I am sure we shall have 
equal difficulty in conceiving that England will stop until she 
is thoroughly exhausted. Fortunately, from our point of view, 
there is no more resolute or dogged people in the world than the 
English, and we remember in that connection with satisfaction 
that many of us are of English extraction. 

As to France, — a new thrill of feeling and sentiment has gone 
through France. Everyone that returns from France says that 
the people seemed changed, externally and internally. They are 
sober and serious, and they go about their daily work with a grave 
determination to prevent by any sacrifices the extinction, or the 
reduction in power, of the French nation. 

But what shall I say of Russia? It is the momentary, yes, 
the rather permanent behef in Germany, that the Russians may be 
justly described as barbarians, semi-civilized people. Oriental 
people, incapable of that high degree of organization, and that 
practice of individual liberty under law which characterize the 
promising Occidental peoples. And it is true that the Russians 
are an immense mass of people only lately risen from the condition 
of serfs, and that they are ruled by a despotic ruler who is sur- 
rounded by an autocratic group of high public officials. But we 
Americans have learnt in recent years a good deal about the 



Russians; and we find in them some qualities which give us hope 
for the huge nation, which often seems slumbering or half-awake 
as regards both commercial and political activity. We have had a 
large number of Russians poured in upon us of recent years, and 
we have found them to be an industrious, intelligent, romantic 
people, capable of all the highest sentiments of hiunan nature, and 
having at heart a great ambition towards liberty and an expanding 
and improving life. I had occasion to observe while I was Presi- 
dent of Harvard College that there were no more intelligent stu- 
dents in the University than the Russians. They had the defects 
of peoples that have been for generations under despotic rule, and 
doubtless on an immense scale they still exhibit those defects. 

Many Americans have made acquaintance within the last fif- 
teen years with modern Russian hterature. It is in high degree 
imaginative, hopeful, and pathetic, though often revolutionary in 
the proper sense of that word, — that is, looking to great changes 
in family and social fife, and in the life of the government. Tolstoy 
represents an immense movement of the Russian mind. It was the 
Czar of Russia that called the first Hague Conference. The 
Czar instituted the Douma, which has had already an interesting 
and truly remarkable career, considering that none of its mem- 
bers had any experience of political liberty. I admit that none of 
these things may go very deep, except the Russian literature. 
That goes deep into the heart and mind of the nation. That makes 
a deep impression on the heart and mind of the whole civilized 
world. 

We have further to observe that three important steps have 
already been taken by Russia since this War broke out, all of them 
of a highly progressive nature. One is the offer to the Poles to 
re-constitute the Kingdom of Poland; another is to give Jews full 
civic rights in Russia; and the third is the imperial order pro- 
hibiting the manufacture and use of the strong alcohoUc spirit 
that the Russians have been in the habit of drinking. That last 
outcome of this sudden War is a very striking one. What if an 
immense temperance reform should date from August, 1914, all 
over Russia? 

We must not, therefore, accept the German view that this War 
is really waged to resist a new irruption of the barbarians into 
Europe. It is more than doubtful whether the Russians are 

[9] 



barbarians. It is more than doubtful whether the spirit in which 
the Russians are now fighting be not more accordant with the 
American spirit than the spirit which animates the German Em- 
pire. 

We must bear in mind — indeed we are not in danger of for- 
getting — the deep obligations which this American nation lies 
under to England and France. The obligations are so deep that 
it is quite in vain to expect us to be in our hearts nuetral during 
the development of this fearful catastrophe. The American 
people is ordinarily accused of being materialistic, of seeking the 
dollar, and not caring much about anything else, except the luxu- 
ries or comforts that the dollar can buy. How often we have 
heard that of late. It is a total misconception with regard to the 
fundamental beliefs and practices of the American people. We 
are an idealistic people. When our ideals are attacked and seem 
to us to be in danger, there is no people in the world that more 
promptly throws to the winds all material interests. When our 
ideals are seriously attacked, we are absolutely reckless with re- 
gard to ovir property, national or individual, and we care for our 
material resources only as means of defending our moral theories 
and our hopes for mankind. 

We must hope and pray that we shall not be drawn into this 
most horrible War of all time. But that escape will be due to 
the fact that Russia, England, and France have succeeded in de- 
feating Germany and Austria-Hungary. 

Prophecy as to issues is impossible under such conditions as 
those we are now witnessing; but it is not impossible to prophecy 
that the American people will be true to their quaUty, true to 
their history, true to their obligations to England and to France. 
We all know that the American ideals came from England across 
the Atlantic with the Pilgrim Fathers and the Puritans, and have 
since moved majestically across the continent; and we all know that 
that "celestial-infernal phenomenon," as Carlyle called the French 
Revolution, carried all about the civilized and half-civilized world 
the fundamental conceptions concerning the rights of man, and the 
uplifting power of Uberty. The French nation, after that "celes- 
tial-infernal phenomenon," wandered in the wilderness for more 
than two generations; but at last they have attained to a repub- 
lican form of government, which has already lasted more than forty 

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years. Can we think of giving no aid to France if she come to the 
end of her resources? Can we think of bringing no aid to England 
if she be reduced to like straits? Happily we do not need to antici- 
pate so direful an issue. But let us not confuse our minds and 
wills by faiUng to see whither the German policies lead, whither 
the teachings of Bismarck, Treitschke, and Bernhardi have led 
Germany. Let us not dream of abandoning our faith that human 
relations should be, nay, shall be, determined, not by arrogant 
force, but by considerations of justice, mercy, love, and good will. 




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